Year in Review...

So, I'm realizing I haven't sat down to write since our Batman birthday party...it's been quite a year. I started this blog to journal our little lives, but had no idea how emotional of a year it would be. As fun as it is to write out the nuances of our life with kids, there were times this year that I felt very overwhelmed and didn't quite know if I wanted to air out our true feelings to the world. In a nutshell, our entire 2011 revolved around a house. We sold our's last December. We thought we had another one lined up. We spent a year living with 4 kids in a two bedroom townhouse with a majority of our belongings in a POD. I have to say, though, that this experience more than any other in my life...has been led by prayer. We felt it was time to sell our house and prayed it would sell. It sold in 3 weeks. We prayed for a place to live. A friend called and told us their townhouse had just become available that month. We prayed God would find us a new house...that one took a little longer.

The roller coaster that followed included highs of accepted offers, to lows of 5 houses falling through with little potential on the market. Feeling temporary is very unnerving. I took deep breaths almost daily and asked for God to replenish my patience...some days it worked, some days it didn't. It's funny, though. I have learned so many invaluable lessons this past year that I honestly wouldn't change the way things happened. I learned to be grateful. "God, we need a bigger house." turned into "God, give us a house that meets our needs." I learned to accept help. "I can handle this on my own." turned into "I could use a hand." Friends came out of the woodworks for us...it truly is overwhelming to think about. Tad and I, more than ever, had to lean on each other for patience and perspective...luckily we make a good team.

So, we bought a house! This house would not leave us alone...we tried buying it twice! It's bigger, it's down the street from amazing people, it needs a lot of work, it's perfect.

We spent the last year saying "When we get a house, ____________". I am so glad to say we have already started filling in the blank. Last night we had our first get together (despite the mess), and the boys had their first sleepover. We are so looking forward to 2012 to fill in the blank with more amazing adventures!!!

On that note, we are planning a month full of activities to kick off our year on the right foot. I am going to post it on here, so that anyone else who'd like to play along can...

Here's to a great new year!!!